There was a time when I did a lot of writing about antiques and collectibles, in the course of which I amassed five or six tall bookcases fully stocked with volumes on everything from Mickey Mouse memorabilia to model trains to Meissen porcelain. But since I’ve become almost exclusively Berry-focused, I keep thinking I should cull the collection and make room for my ever expanding assemblage of international name books. Yet something always stops me.

Just today, I was thinking I would drop off a few books at least at my local library, but every time I’d pick one up—Golf Collectibles, say, or Depression Glass—something would impel me to put it down. And why? Because each one is filled with names of one kind or another, names that just might be of interest to the Berries as antique baby names.

So, to justify (or not) my ambivalence, I thought I’d browse through a few of them to see what I could come up with, trying to avoid the proper names of makers, but looking for words with baby name potential. Here’s what I came up with—see what you think.

Pop open the champagne: It’s Middle Name Pride Day! In celebration, everyone’s supposed to reveal their middle names to three people who don’t know it. What if you learned, probably the hard way, that your middle name might make other people laugh, gasp, or want to punch you in the nose? Then take comfort in knowing that you’re in good company. Many of the most famous names around have middle names they’d probably just as soon keep out of the limelight.

Our Berry Question of the Week comes from JenBarnes of Seattle, who’s facing a common problem in Baby Name Land: She and her husband are having trouble agreeing on a name for their second daughter. Here, the names he likes and those that she likes. Your job, dear berries, is to help them find a name they both will love. Jen writes:

Please help us name baby #2! Our 2nd baby girl is arriving in 4 short weeks and she has no name! Our 18-month-old daughter, RoseKatherine, was named the second we found out that she was a girl! Every time I think I have some names narrowed down, I add one to the list. My husband has been no help in this process either — ha. Here are the names he likes:

The Sundance Film Festival just wrapped up in Utah yesterday. Indie films are a great resource for unexpected baby names – they’re inventive, original, often rich with significance, and yet they’re usually not blockbusters. Choosing a name from a great but somewhat obscure movie is different than calling your daughter Neytiri or your son Anakin – there’s less instant, unavoidable connection to the character.

Last week also brought us a string of celebrity birth announcements too intriguing to ignore. A handful of Sundance-inspired appellations, like Merrily, Beatrice, Clarke, Spring,and Beau,exited the list to make room for a few newsworthy baby names.

Zibby – The youngest Olsen sister, Elizabeth, plays Zibby in coming-of-age flick Liberal Arts. Surely it isn’t the character’s given name. Maybe Zibby is a creative short form of Elizabeth, or it could be a novel nickname for Isabella.

It’s official! America’s favorite names are Charlotteand James. The top names for 2011 in Sweden? Aliceand William. They’re classic appellations, at home across the centuries and in many languages.

They’re also clearly gendered. With apologies to Mr. Cooper, it is difficult to imagine a boy named Alice, and while actor JamesMarsden has a daughter called MaryJames, it is tough to imagine picking Jamesfor a daughter’s first name.

Or is it? At first, it is easy to draw clear lines. Evanis a boy’s name, but Evelynis meant for a girl. Nicolais feminine, of course, while Jordanwas shamelessly stolen from our sons.

While we all have our own impressions, it often turns out that the line is blurry, or even non-existent, for many a name. This week’s top nine illustrate that uncertainty.